


Black Roses & Thorns

by FireGiant



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Elita is cured, F/M, In a way, Multi, Shit hits the fan from the get go, Sparkeaters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:48:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27368311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireGiant/pseuds/FireGiant
Summary: Elita One is cured but her life doesn’t return back to normal like she thought. Instead she become part of the crew ship know as Carcer and is given one of the worst and most dangerous job they have, beast hunter. While she is chasing down a beast she is led back to earth and back to... Optimus.
Relationships: Blackarachnia/Optimus Prime, Elita One/Optimus Prime, Elita One/Optimus Prime/Sentinel Prime (past)
Kudos: 22





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea while I was in the shower. It is a combination of two very different universes, transformers animated and idw’s transformers universe.

Blackarachnia emerged from the forest dusting herself off. Another failed experiment, another pitiful attempt to make herself normal again. The bot didn’t even survive, so she couldn’t even call it a minor success, they sat in the back of the lab bloated and swollen inside of a tube.

She heard a soft rustle of leaves rattling against each other, probably just some spooked organic creature making its escape. But then branches began to snap and she could see the trees visibly move and shutter as they were pushed to the side to make room for a much bigger creature. 

She readied her stance, the mandibles that protruding on her shoulders twitched to life, ready to immobilize anything that might come out of there. She bared her fangs and waited. 

A bot emerged from the forest, they were a smokey grey color, and then another following closely behind emerged as well. They were bright green, a stark contrast to their partner. 

They chirped at each other like two birds on a tree branch. Then the smokey grey one looked over their partner's shoulder and made a quick gesture in her direction. The green one turned around and they slowly stalked towards her. 

“Hello there.” The green one said first, their voice was deep, and it sounded like someone was grinding two rocks together into a fine powder. 

“Not interested.” Blackarachnia interrupted turning away from them. They were probably two bots looking for a quick frag, or something equally gross. 

She heard their pedes crush the delicate grass with a soft hiss as they jogged after her. She felt one of their servos brush against her arm. She walked away just a little quicker. 

One of the two bots grabbed her arm. She whipped around and snarled at them. The black bot who had grabbed her arm slowly dropped it and back away behind their partner. 

“Oh, you will be interested in this.” the green one said quickly. Their voice had a strange edge to it. Like someone who was desperately trying to get another to agree with them. She gave them a skeptical look, her optics narrowing.

“And why would I be interested?” Blackarachnia snapped. Her optics darted between the two bot’s faces. The green one wore a dark purple visor that was softly glowing in the setting sun’s light. While the black one had round blue optics and a round face that almost made her feel bad for startling them. Almost. 

“We can make you normal again.” The green one said in a sing-song voice as if they were taunting a child with a piece of candy. An unnaturally wide grin peeled across the bot’s face to reveal dozens of sharp teeth. 

As enticing their offer was and as much as Blackarachnia wanted to believe them, she wasn’t so sure they were telling the truth. For all, she knew they were slavers willing to lurer anyone into their greedy servos with any means necessary for a quick cash grab.

“And what makes you think, I’ll be interested in that?” She snarled. 

The bot looked confused, the grin sliding off and replaced with utter confusion. “What bot would want to live in such a horrendous form?” They asked gesturing towards her. The pair stepped closer. 

Blackarachnia glared at them. Never in her life did she think she would become offended by something she agreed with. Of course, she wanted to get rid of this disgusting body, but by her own means not by these bots means with possibly questionable motives. 

But perhaps they were being genuine, a part of her argued? What if she was passing up the one opportunity in her life-cycle to cure yourself? What if she doesn’t get a second chance?

She felt her fist clench and unclench unsure of what she wanted. Her optics darted around, before landing on the bot's eager faces. Their servos were rubbing together. They looked like cartoonish greedy humans about to receive a truckload of gold. 

“I’ll figure myself out, thanks.” She said, turning away from them. Half her processor screamed, she wanted to believe them so badly but it wasn't worth the risk.

She heard the bots behind her growl angrily. 

“Dark Claw!” She heard one of the bots bark. Then she heard the whine of weaponry. She turned around in time to see a bolt of light tunnel out of the blaster’s barrel. She tried to run, but the light slammed into her frame enveloping her. 

She screamed in agony as electricity coursed through her. When the last spark dissipated off of her frame she felt numb, like she was floating on a cloud. She could hear the bot’s footsteps through the ground as they approached her. 

She could hear them talking to one another in that same chirping language she heard them speaking in earlier. But they sounded muffled like she was bearing them through thick glass. 

She felt herself being lifted and slung over one of the bot’s shoulder like a sack. The two bots stepped carefully into the forest the leaves crunching under their pedes and the occasional twig snapping sending birds darting out of the trees.

They weren’t careful with her. The smokey black bot turned around a tree sending her limb frame cascading into it. She would have winced if she had felt anything. Her servos were just as numb as the rest of her. She felt the soft tingle of would-be-pain expand from her side to the rest of her body.

Soon the two bots came across a ship, neatly tucked into a group of trees. The green bot reached into their subspace and pulled out a small key. The ship was dark and the windows had been darkened as well. 

The blue veins etched into the metal plating along the ship’s side flashed softly as it came to life, casting the trees and ground in soft electric blue light. A door on the side slid open and the two bots quickened their pace. 

They stepped on board the ship with dull, heavy thuds from their pedes. 

The black bot dropped Blackarachnia like she was an old unwanted object onto the floor. She groaned softly the noise barely passing through her lip-components.

The green bot chirped at the black bot excitedly, they then turned to look at Blackarachnia one more time before sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seats and taking off. 

She felt as the ship left the ground and her vision went black. 

+++

She came back online slowly, she looked around, her vision blurry, and small spots were sprinkled throughout it. She could see out the windows. 

All she could see were endless stars speckled across a dark sky. She tried to shift but found that her limbs felt heavy like they had titanium weights tighten to them. 

The ship rocked slowly lulling her back into unconsciousness. 

+++

When she came to once again she was met with a blindingly bright light. She grunted and squeezed her optics shut trying to block out as much light as possible. 

But her optics were saved when a form moved to stand in front of her, blocking the light. She tried to ship but found that her wrist-joints were tied down, as were her pedes. She panicked and began to pull at the restaurants. 

She stopped when she felt a soft touch on her arm. “Stop struggling, this all be over soon.” The voice said it was soft and comforting, but it made Blackarachnia squirm even more. The voice sighed. “Dark Claw, bring me my tools.”

There was rattling as a cart was pushed over, the soft tinkling of metal gently tapping against metal filled her audials. The medical bot leaned over her as it lifted their tools into their servos. 

The first two she saw was a giant retractor, and the other was a dull blade. What were they going to use that for? Her mind wondered, making her tank churn with the possibilities. 

“Now I just need to find the seem.” The medic said, running a thin digit over her chassis. “Ah, there we are.” They said and then jabbed the dull black into the tiny seam. 

She screamed. The medic growled in irritation. “I can’t work in this noise.” They complained. 

“Well, what do I do?” The green one asked. 

“Pull the wires to her voice box.” The medic snarled, throwing their servos up into the air. 

“Wouldn’t that damage her?” The green one asked.

“I don’t care. She won’t be needing this form for much longer anyway.” The medic growled.

“You’re the boss.” The green one said before digging their digit into her neck plating and ripping the delicate armor off. They gouged their digit into her neck, she could feel every movement. They grabbed a bunch of wire mumbling ‘this seems right’ under their breath and pulled. 

Her voice cut out suddenly. “Hold her down will you.” The medic said to the green one. The two bots came to her side and grabbed her shoulders forcing them down. 

The medic wiggled the blade in her chest forcefully opening her chest plates further. Soon they were able to wedge the retractor into the opening. 

With the retractor in the opening, the medic spread across the two pieces of the retractor, opening her chest plates further and keeping them open. Pain shot up from Blackarachnia's chest plates as they struggled to close. Warnings flashed across his vision and panic fogged her processor. She wanted to scream but she couldn't, making her feel even more trapped. 

The medic set the blade down, leaving the retractor in her chest plates. They picked up a pair of tongs from the trey behind Blackarachnia. They slowly lowered the pair of tongs into her chest plates. She felt the cold metal clamp around her spark.

And then the medic tugged as hard as they could. Blackarachnia jerked and then everything went dark with a burst of static in her audials. 

Slowly she became aware again, she could see nothing but she could hear sounds. She could hear the bot’s voices, they echoed endlessly in the dark. 

“Yes bring it here.” The medic said briskly. “And stop dilly-dallying, we have a short period of time.”

She could soft clanging and grunt of effort. “Yes, that's fine.” She heard the medic say irritatedly. “No, don’t touch it, it’s fine where it is!” She heard an irritated grunt.

She could hear the echoing of pedes as they clacked against the metal floor. And then she felt a presents, and pull towards something, a pull that was impossibly strong. 

And then the echoing noises cut out and she was shrouded in nothingness once again. 

+++

Blackarachnia -no that wasn’t her name anymore was it?- she was no longer techno-organic was she? She opened her optics slowly. She felt dizzy and sick to her tank as it flopped around and did somersaults. 

She saw the three bots standing around her, their servos clenched close to their chests. The first one to notice her was the black one. 

“She’s online.” They squealed cheerfully. It caught the attention of their partner and the medic, who's helms snapped in her direction, their faces brightening. 

“We were so worried you wouldn’t make it.” The green one said softly. 

“We took too long to get your new frame out, we worried your spark spent too long away from a chamber, but it seems your spark is stronger than it lets on.” The medic said turning away and walking out of the room. 

The door hissed as it closed behind them. 

“Welcome to Carcer.” The black bot said cheerfully as their green partner grabbed their arm and began to drag them out of the room. Mumbling something about letting her rest.

The door closed and Elita looked over at the lifeless, greying corps that were once her body. She looked up out the window, endless stars passed by. She saw her reflection she was pink, with strange structures sticking off of her helm. 

She looked down at her servos; they were pale pink, almost white. She laid back down and shut her optics. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. 


	2. Night terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus is kept awake by a raging thunderstorm as Elita crashes on earth.

Earth was such a strange planet, on Cybertron they rarely got rain or even storms for that matter, but when it did it was acid. Strong enough to melt through a bot’s armor and damage the delicate protoform that laid underneath. 

But Earth wasn’t like that the rain was gentle. It would gently tap against their armor, like cold little kisses. 

The first time it had rained on Earth, the bots had cowered in the corner, even their war-scarred medic coward in the little corner with them. Sari has given them one strange look and proceeded to pull a small jacket out of her bag and go outside. Much to everyone’s horror. 

While everyone else was frozen with shock and terror, Optimus had left to his pedes and darted towards the door after Sari. But what he found shocked him. Sari was giggling and jumping into mud puddled splashing the water everywhere. 

And when he felt the cold tap of the rain, he found that it was actually rather nice. 

Optimus didn’t mind rainy days, in fact, he enjoyed them. Everything seemed so peaceful. Even if they were chasing after a ‘con or a robber, everything just seemed to tranquil. 

He liked the rain but he wasn’t sure how he felt about thunderstorms. Yes, they two had rain, but a gentle little sprinkle or a light tap of cold water against his armor. It was sheets of water falling out of the sky, pounding against his armor, and falling into his optics. And there was the thunder and lighting. 

He shouldn’t be afraid of thunder, he wasn’t. Kind of. Sari told them it was just noise, it wasn’t anything to worry about. 

Thunder rumbled outside like some barley contained angry beast, and lightning flashed outside his window. Optimus could hear the pounding of the rain, like a heavy servo pounding against a door. 

He couldn’t entre his recharge cycle and everything he was  _ just _ about to drift off, lighting would flash and a clap of thunder boomed overhead. 

It caused him to jerk awake. To sit up rapidly in his berth, his spark pounding hard against his chest. A steady  _ thump, thump, thump _ in his audials. 

He hated thunder. He hated it, it reminded of dark times in his life. Regretful times. He tried to turn off his aduials, maybe that would help him. But it was no use, he could feel it when thunder rumbled, it shook the building. It was even worse than before, it felt like the whole world was shaking. 

He quickly switched his audials back on. His spark pounding harder than ever before.

It reminded him of the rocks collapsing into the hole, and the explosions, but worse of all he can  _ hear _ her. He could hear her screaming for him as she fell into the darkness below them.

All he did was  _ watch _ ! He could have gone back, he would anything! Anything! To redo that decision he made. To go back and save her. Optimus sat in his berth his vents unsteady and shaking. Tears slowly tracked down his face. 

He loved her! He loved her and he left her behind! He’s not sure what feels worse. The knowledge that she hates as much or more than he hates himself. Or the guilt he carries in his spark that makes it feel like it’s collapsing in on itself. 

Earth could be a wonderful place, it was full of life and so many other things that other Cybertronian might scoff at. But this was one aspect of Earth that he didn’t like. But he couldn’t stop it. 

He laid back down reaching her servo down to feel for the tarp that had fallen to the floor and pull it back over himself. He could feel his tears drying, leaving cold trails along his face. 

Suddenly there was a loud boom. Another clap of thunder? Probably. He closed his optics and tried to tune the thunder out. This was going to be a long night. 

+++

Somewhere deep within the forest. Elita sat in the seat, fighting with the straps keeping her in. She had been the first to wake, her helm had been slammed against the dashboard and a trickle of energon was slowly running down it. 

The rest of her team were unconscious their chins against their chest and optics dark half-lidded. 

She could hear something in the back of the ship. A low guggle growl and a hiss that shortly followed. 

She pulled harder on the straps but they wouldn’t budge. She looked behind her, but there was nothing but darkness. 

Then she heard another sound, a distorted chirp. Her spark sank into her tanks. There was more than one? And then another deeper snarl. There were three!

She pulled on her straps before growling in frustration. She let them go and reached for the dashboard. And snapped off a piece of metal and brought it to the straps. 

She slid the shard of metal against the strap, at first there was nothing, but when Elita pressed harder the woven material of the strap began to cut and fray. 

She cut through the first strap and then the second, she threw them off of her when she was finally free jumping to her pedes. She dropped the shard once it was of no use to her anymore. She couldn’t see anything. She felt for the wall. 

She needed to find the door. Her servo slid against the cold metal wall until she felt it dip inwards. Her servo landed against the smooth metal of the door. She felt around, feeling for the handle. 

There were times she thought she was close. But would search further and couldn’t find anything. She heard another snarl from the creatures in the back of the ship, she could hear their claws scraping against the ship’s hull. 

She could fee tiny sparks as medal dragged against metal. It illuminated only part of the creature, but what she could see was just as gruesome as the rest of it. Its arms looked mangled and ripped apart, the arm was unnaturally long, and it looks as if someone had cleared the mesh and armor off the base frame of a bot. 

It was close. Too close. She didn’t have time to look for this handle anymore. She backed up and ran at the door slamming her shoulder into it. She door dented but it didn’t break. She backed up again and ran into it. She bounced off again. She backed up one more time, her spark pounding in her chest. And slammed into the door. 

It gave away with surprising speed. She shouted as she fell out of the ship and onto the ground. She got up quickly and ran back into the ship. She unbuckled the straps of her first teammate and tossed them over her shoulder. They hung limply. And they were heavy.

She turned and ran out of the ship setting the bot on her shoulder down, propping them against a tree. She ran back in for her second teammate. 

She tried to unbuckle them but the buckle was stuck, just like hers. She should have kept that shard of metal. She broke off another, it twisted and shrieked. The creatures chattered excitedly. 

She grabbed the new shard and began to but through the straps. 

Then she felt a tickle, she slowly looked up to see the creature standing right in front of her. It’s long gnarled servo grazing her shoulder. She cut through the last strap slowly. Before quickly turning around. She stood up and slashed the creature.

The monster stumbled back, shirking in pain, drawing the other two’s attention.

Frag. 

The other two monsters roared at Elita as she grabbed her teammate and tore them from their seat. She ran and jumped out of the ship, toward her other teammate. 

She paused for a moment to sling her second teammate over her shoulder and grabbed the other’s collar. She paused for a moment. Perhaps she could hide. She grabbed her other teammate and dragged them behind the ship. 

She crouched down and listened. 

The creatures stepped out of the ship with a soft thud of their pedes. They snarled and chirped at each other before they began to run again, into the forest. Elita slid down the ship letting out a sigh. 

She was safe for now, but for how much longer? 


	3. Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl goes to inspect the ship that had crashed the night before, and it met with an unpleasant surprise.

Captain Fanzone had every right to be worried. Prowl thought to himself as he trudged through the forest. He looked around at his surroundings. It was very peaceful out here, apart from the enormous gouge in the earth stretching far into the light fog that had begun to settle on the first floor, everything in front of him was undisturbed and tranquil. 

The thunderstorm from the night before had devolved into a light sprinkle of rain gently pricking them to cold droplets of water. The morning had been relatively peaceful, peaceful enough that Prowl was able to get in a good few jours of meditation in before Bumblebee inevitably created some for of racket on the ground level. 

They had gotten a call from Fanzone, that was what broke Prowl’s concentration, he had been ranting on and on. He sounded mad. He had said something about ‘you bots always destroying thing!’ which wasn’t anything new, but when he mentioned a forest and a ship of ‘robot origin’ it had caught Prowl’s attention. 

He volunteered to check it out, he wanted to get away to get out he and the rest of the crew had been cooped up all of last orn because of the rain, and he had listened to Bumblebee’s stupid video game music for far too long. he was starting to hear it even when Bumblebee was not playing them. 

Sari was practically clinging to his leg begging that he take her with him. He relented, it was a forest and Fanzone hadn’t mentioned anything outwardly dangerous. It was probably fine for Sari to come along. She probably just wanted to get out as much as he did, and who was he to force her to stay inside?

Prowl and Sari stepped deeper and deeper into the forest. The rain droplets were gently pitter-pattered against the tree’s leaves. Sari had brought along a yellow raincoat that she had pulled over herself. 

The gouge in the earth seemed to go on forever.  _ How long did this ship skin until it reached a halt _ ? Prowl thought to himself. The bark of some trees had been ripped off, and other trees had been completely ripped from the ground, clumps of dirt clung to the thick bundle of roots. 

The fog was thick, not thick enough that Prowl couldn’t see his servos when he stuck them out in front of him, but thick enough that Prowl couldn’t clearly see what was a few paces in front of him. 

Vailed by the mist a dark shape slowly came into view, becoming more and more visible as Prowl got closer. Sharp edges and sides cut through the mists swirling tendrils and every soon what Prowl was looking for came into view.

The trench in the ground was blocked by a large, dark grey vessel in the middle of the forest. It rightfully looked out of place.

_ Fanzone was right _ . Prowl thought as he inspected the ship thoughtfully stroking his chin. This ship did look to be of Cybertronian origin. But Prowl hadn’t seen this type of ship before. 

Prowl walked along the side dragging his digits over it. The metal felt smooth and glossy under his touch. The dirt where the nose of the vessel was buried into the ground was rolled upwards into uneven chunks. 

Prowl stepped around the ship over the large hump in the soil. Noting how the soft ground compressed under his pedes. 

“Wow, what  _ is  _ this?” Sari asked. Her voice echoed and it seemed loud against the quiet atmosphere. Her voice also startled Prowl, he was so transfixed on the ship he had forgotten that Sari was with him. 

She must have seen Prowl wince at her volume because she lowered her voice when she spoke again. 

“Do you know where this is from Prowl?” Sari whispered her voice seeming more in place with the tranquil atmosphere. 

“I don’t know.” Was all Prowl could say. There was something off about this setting, but Prowl just couldn’t place it. 

Sari giggled as he playfully skipped onto the log and fanned out her arms walking across it wobbling back and forth a little bit. She jumped off the end of the log and ventured to the opposite side of the ship. He could hear her cheerfully humming a tune to herself. 

It dawned on Prowl. The birds! There were no birds, at least non of the birds in the area were singing. The forest around them was completely silent and still. It made Prowl’s armor flair out a little bit off of his frame, his body unconsciously trying to make itself bigger and more intimidating. 

Sari’s cheerful humming had stopped. “Hey… Prowl?” She said softly, her voice quivering and uneasy. “You might want to see this.” She said her voice slow like she was still trying to process what she was looking at.

Prowl ventured to the side that Sari was standing on. He felt his spark simultaneously skip a rotation and fall into the pit of his tanks. 

The door had been opened all the way, there were huge gashes in the metal. Claw marks. The interior was not much better. If not worse. Scratched were etched along the walls and there were dark blaster marks marring the metal plating of the ship’s interior as well. 

Prowl climbing into the shuttle. He looked around. The only source of light was from the windshields, which were half-buried in the dirt. The light didn’t reach the back of the vessel, it was pitch black like a dark mass was slowly consuming it. 

“Prowl?” Sari sounded anxious. Prowl looked out the opened doorway to see three figures standing in the mist, silently. They looked to be far away. 

Prowl stepped forward out of the ship and stoop in front of Sari. “Who are you?” He asked. There was no response. The bots, or what he presumed to be bots, just cocked their helms to the side and stepped closer. 

Their walk was strange. It was less of a walk and more of a shamble. Prowl squinted his optics trying to see the bots more clearly, but it was no use, the fog was too thick. 

“Is this ship yous?” He asked. His voice sounded loud and echoed through the forest. “Do you understand me?” Prowl asked. Yet again there was no response. Now he was getting a little bit annoyed. Were these bots playing games?

He stepped closer. “Are you hurt?” Prowl asked. Sari backed up against the ship as if trying to meld with it. “We have a medic we can help you.” Prowl called into the mist again. 

Suddenly one of the figures lurched forward, the sudden movement made Prowl flinch. They were now a pace closer than they were before. 

“Are you going to answer me?” Prowl asked trying to keep the snark out of his voice. A low rumbled rattled through the forest. He could have sworn it came from those bots. 

The bots were holding their bodies in strange positions as they walked, their arms were bent as if they were walking with their servos on their hips. 

As the bots slowly ventured closer. Prowl began to notice things that just didn’t seem right. 

Their bodies were disproportionate, gaunt, lanky. 

It wasn’t until they were a couple of paces away from Prowl did he see what was wrong with them. They were grey, any ounce of color they might have once had was gone. Where their optics should have been were endless black pits with a tiny glowing center. 

But the strangest thing? They were walking on all four of their limbs and yet they stood as tall, if not taller than him. Their thighs were curved like half a wheel, and their pedes and legs were thin. Their arms looked like regular arms that were stretched to their limits all the way to the ground. Their elbows bent to their sides - _ that was what he saw as their arms _ \- and their servos were bent like gorillas as they walked. 

The three bots stood silently. Their blank faces starred into Prowls. He was filled with a sense of dread. He didn’t why, but just looking at these creatures filled him with unexplainable dread. He knew they meant harm to him and Sari, but he didn’t know why, something was just telling him they were dangerous.

“Sari, get in the ship.” Prowl whispered not daring to take his optics off the creatures. He didn’t hear a response, but he heard shuffling as Sari’s jacket rustled against the vessel’s metal. 

Prowl backed away, and the creatures did  _ not  _ like that. They growled barring their denta. Rows and rows of teeth glistened in the early morning light. 

The creatures knew their prey was catching on to their little facade and they were  _ hungry _ . If they didn’t act fast they were going to lose it. Prowl just needed to be faster. 

He had to time this correctly. If he ran, they would undoubtedly lunge at him. Prowl backed up some more. The creature stood up on its back legs. It towered over Prowl. 

Its arms lifted up, and Prowl could see it’s massive claws. He gulped. He wouldn’t be able to outrun these creatures, he needed to hide. He needed to get into that ship. 

The creature stepped forward, its empty sockets locking onto him, the others bent their limps preparing to pounce. 

Prowl chose that moment to turn and run. He whipped around and darted into the ship. 

He grabbed the door and began to close it, but stuck. He fought with the door, his processor fogged with a primal sense of panic. 

The creature rushed forward and ripped the door away. The metal squealed and shrieked as it was bent in half. The creature shoved itself into the ship and clawed over prowl. 

“Sari get in the back of the ship!” Prowl said trying to keep the panic out of his voice, trying to keep Sari calm. She nodded and rushed into the back of the ship. He could see silver tears rolling down her cheeks out of fear or out of the knowledge that she couldn’t help him, he didn’t know. 

The creature opened its mouth impossibly wide, and Prowl felt a harsh pull from the middle of his chest. It began as a light pressure, and then it grew painful. He hollered in pain. 

One of the other creatures snapped at the one occupying Prowl. The monster hovering over Prowl turned and snarled at the other creature. Prowl watched a long arm reach up and swipe at one of its companions. 

Before the creature could resume what it was doing there was a loud zing that echoed through the forest. A white bolt rocked into the vessel’s hull and slammed into the monster in the back of the helm. 

It lurked forward, it’s helm crashing into Prowl’s chest. It sat up, the tiny little lights in its sockets burned with rage. Another bolt was fired it hit the creature square in the jaw.

It roared angrily, ignoring Prowl now as it fled the scene. 

Prowl didn’t look up feeling suddenly drained of all energy. He only looked up when shadows blocked the light coming into the vessel once more. 

There were three bots in the place of the creatures. Real bots. An orange one. A bright lime green one wielding a crossbow. And in the middle slightly taller than the other two, an energon pink bot. 

Prowl sent a ping to the rest of his team, requesting assistance, giving no extra details. He set his helm back down and offlined his optics feeling completely and utterly exhausted. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed!


	4. Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Optimus sees the Dinobots stomping around Detroit and goes to investigate.

Optimus stared out the window. It was another rainy day. Fat droplets splattered against the cold glass windows and their remanence trickled down the side. 

It had been several jours, Prowl and Sari had yet to return. Optimus was a little worried, but Ratchet said that it was probably fine. They both hadn’t been out in a while and were probably just trying to get as much time to themselves as possibles. 

Optimus had to agree spending almost all of their time cooped up inside the base with Bumblebee could sometimes be draining. The bot was loud and having to deal with his and Bulkhead’s shenanigans as they tried to end their boredom had become a little infuriating. There were times that even Sari was shaking her head and sighing. 

But still, the thought lingered in the back of his processor. Like a dust bunny in a far corner under one’s berth that could not be properly reached. 

But that wasn’t the only thing plaguing his processor. 

Something wasn’t right, the Decepticons had been worryingly inactive for a few orns now. It was unlike them to just stop all of a sudden, usually, they were plotting something. But there had been no activity from Starscream or his clone, or the rest of the Decepticons, not even…- that was the others thing Eli-  _ Blackarachnia _ , she had seemingly just disappeared. Vanished off of the face of the earth. 

Blackarachnia had a history of slinking away for a few weeks doing Primus knows what. But she always came back. Usually in the form of mischief or confrontation, but sometimes they simply crossed paths. Those moments were calmer, they would exchange glances as if speaking some telepathic language before she turned away and slipped back into the shadows. 

But for the past couple of months, he hadn’t even  _ seen _ her slinking around the city, or Dinobot island, nowhere. Let alone hear of any strange activity that might illude to her presents. Nothing. There was nothing. 

He was tempted to look for her, but he was needed else where.

The rain grew harder as the jours rolled by. Soon instead of droplets individually falling out of the sky into puddles, sheets of rain poured down from the sky splashing on sidewalks and filling the rain puddles with bubbly froth as they were churned. The thunderstorm from the night before had returned. 

He heard a loud groan. He looked over to see Bumblebee throwing a servoful of cards into the air and falling onto his back. Bumblebee and Bulkhead sat around a small board game that Sari had shown them the first time they experienced a rainy day. After Ratchet unplugged the T.V. out of sheer annoyance they pulled it out. 

The cards fluttered down, twirling in the air like butterflies, and landed scattered around Bumblebee. 

“This is sooooo boring.” He groaned flicking a card off of his chest plates. Optimus rolled his optics and chuckled to himself. 

There was suddenly a soft rhythmic thumping, Optimus turned to look out the window. The rainwater vibrated in time with the thumping.  _ Decepticons _ ? Optimus thought. The water on the window warped the image before him, but the colors he saw did not look like Decepticon colors. There was no purple, but he did see red. 

_ Dinobots _ ?  _ What were they doing here _ ? Optimus thought. A small fluttered of hope flickered in his spark.  _ Did Blackarachnia send them to retrieve something _ ? He heard screaming as the bots trudged through the city. That wasn’t good.

The rest of his teammate lifted their helms, looks of confusion crossed their faces as they two heard the stomping. 

Optimus left the base before they could say anything. 

Out in the open, he could see the bots more clearly. The rain sprayed down on him running down his armor like a cold shower. He blinked as the water fell down into his optics. 

The Dinobots were not tearing the city apart looking for something as they usually were found doing. Nor were they terrorizing Detroit’s citizens. In fact, they seemed completely unaware of the tiny humans scampering out from underneath their pedes. 

Cars screeched to a halt as the Dinobots stepped through the city looking around. 

Optimus could hear a voice calling in the distance. He watched the Dinobots disappear behind a building. He watched a giant flying figure circle in the city and land behind the building as well. 

It almost looked like the Dinobots were looking for someone. Optimus transformed and drove closer to the scene.

He transformed when he got closer to the scene unfolding before him. The Dinobots were looking around almost as if they were lost. Oddly enough they were all in their bot modes. Grimlock held something in his taloned servo and he occasionally stretched out his neck cables and sniffed the air.

Grimlock looked at swoop who shook his helm. Grimlock looked down at his pedes disappointedly.

Snarl, behind Grimlock, rumbled, cupping his servos around his intake. The three dinosaur robots began to walk forward again. 

Optimus ran in front of them blocking their path. Grimlock tried to turn the other way, but Optimus followed them. Grimlock growled in annoyance.

“Autobot will get out of Grimlock way!” Grimlock shouted. 

“Grimlock what are you doing?” Optimus asked starring up into the Dinobot’s visor. 

“Me Grimlock not tell Autobot!” Grimlock declared. Optimus rolled his optics and stood his ground. He could see what was clutched in Grimlock’s servo, it was black with a yellow point on it. It looked like one of Blackarachnia’s shoulder armor plating.  _ Oh no _ . “Autobot bad-” 

“Where did you get that?” Optimus asked dread filling him.  _ Had Grimlocked attacked Elita _ ?  _ Was she hurt in some way _ ?

“Me Grimlock found it in Grimlock forest.” Grimlock said. 

“You just found it?” Optimus asked skeptically.

“Me Grimlock found it in Grimlock woods!” Grimlock said defensively catching onto Optimus’s tone. “Me Grimlock look for spider-lady, but not find spider-lady yet.” Grimlock said. 

“Show me where you found it.” Optimus said.

“Grimlock not want to.” 

“I can help you look.” Optimus offered. It was a total lie, he had no clue where she might be. But he hoped it worked. 

“Autobot help find Spider-lady if Grimlock show Autobot?” Grimlock asked.

“Yes.” Optimus said. 

“Autobot follow Grimlock.” Grimlock said transforming and running the other way. The other two transformed as well. Snarl followed Grimlock, the ground buildings rattled as his every step thundered, while Swoop took flight. 

Optimus had no choice but to transform and follow or he would lose them. He weaved between traffic, trying to keep up. There were times that Optimus thought he had lost them only to turn a corner and find them again.

He passed the main city and drove through the suburbs and finally, he found himself at the edge of a massive forest.

He transformed and followed on foot. The trees were too densely packed to drive through. 

He ran into the woods but not before he noticed that the grass was disturbed, while most of the strands were standing upright. But there was a line where the grass was folded over, and there were rips in the ground where it looked like someone had been dragged along the ground.

His thoughts raced in his head. Millions of possibilities all gruesome rushed through his processor.

He slipped into the woods following the stomping and the trees that rocked as they were pushed aside ahead of him. 

As he jogged through the forest he noticed a tree that looked off. He stopped and looked at it. There was a massive gash in it, the bark in that area had been stipped off revealing the soft green cambium layer underneath.

There was another piece of metal on the ground. He knelt down and picked it up. It was long a thin, mostly yellow but the end was black. It looked like one of Blackarachnia mandibles. He held onto the apendange and kept going. 

He found the Dinobots around a group of trees. Some of the trees looked knocked over, some were snapped in half, all were pushed out as if they were making room for something much larger. 

“Found Spider-Lady piece here.” Grimlock said. 

Optimus stepped around the trees inspecting the scene. The trees look just as marred as the one had crossed. There was black paint that had been scraped off and was streaked against the bark that was left behind. 

_ What the frag had happened here _ ? Optimus didn’t have time to think as a ping from Prowl caught his attention. 

<<I require assistance.>> It said. 


	5. Search & Rescue

By the time Prowl had online his optics and lifted his helm again, the bots who had saved him and Sari from -whatever that thing was- were already gone without a trace. They left no sign that they were even there.

They weren’t like anything that Prowl had seen before. They were taller than any Autobot than he had ever seen, but they were not quite as tall as the Decepticons. 

And they wore no symbol on their chassises. They appeared to be associated with no particular faction. 

Prowl had heard of the factionless, the neutrals, bots who had fled Cybertron before the war really started to pick up. The neutral bots still hadn’t returned to their homeworld, and some speculate that they never will. 

The bots spoke to each other in the most peculiar of languages. If one could even call it that, a series of chirps, clicks, and trills at each other. But it seemed to be a form of communication. 

The mist still lingered between the trees and drifted in the light breeze. Tendrils curled in front of the doorway, twisting around his legs, which dangled out.

His legs twitched when he felt the soft cold prickle of rain droplets hitting his knee-joints. He felt another cold prick as another hit his lower thigh. He blinked slowly, his processor coming back online. 

Very slowly he became more and more aware of his surroundings. The static began to quiet in his aduails and soon he could hear the soft pitter-pattering of the rain on the trees above them, and the light thumping as the rain hit against the vessel’s roof. 

He felt the floor beneath him, he felt it’s hard surface pressing into the armor plating of his back. He felt the air around him, now cooled by the accompanying rain.

His helm felt oddly heavy, he felt as if his helm was made out of a concrete brick while the rest of him was as flimsy as paper. There was a pressure started from the middle of his chest plates, right over his spark. The feeling spread from the center point spreading to his arms and legs and down his abdomen. 

Slowly he sat and pulled his legs into the ship. 

“Prowl?” He heard a small voice ask. 

Prowl slowly turned his helm in the direction where the sound came from.

He saw Sari, still was still cowering in the corner where he had asked her to be. It looked as if she had tried to make herself as tiny as possible. She had pulled her knees into her chest. Her chin rested on her knees. Her eyes were big, and still a little watery. 

“Prowl, are you okay?” She asked softly. She slowly began to get up keeping her back against the wall. Her optics were still partially wide, and Prowl could see her tiny body heaving as she tried to calm her breathing. Her yellow rain jacket dangled off of her body loosely. She hugged her arms around herself, rubbing her hands up her arms.

Prowl wasn’t sure if she was cold -the jacket looked very insulating the likelihood was low- or if the motion was more of a comfort. 

“I am…” Prowl paused for a moment trying to gather himself. “Fine.” Prowl managed to say. “Or I will be.” He added softly mostly to himself. Prowl placed one of his servos on his fore-helm, feeling his helm sway and spin. He saw little circles of light dance in his optics. 

Sari slowly stepped towards Prowl, hesitantly. Her jacket was a little too big for her, the sleeve fell over her wrist ever so slightly and the jacket hung just a little too low on her waist.

She took another step before running to him, she wrapped her arms around his arm and pressed her face into it. 

“Prowl?” Sari asked after a long pause. The silence was filled with the soft pitter-patter of rain. “Do you know what that- that-  _ thing _ was?” Sari asked, she looked up at Prowl. Prowl looked down at her despite his helm feeling ten times as heavy as it usually did he managed to look at her. 

“No. I don’t.” Prowl admitted to her. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” 

+++

Ratchet was halfway through the city chasing down Optimus after he suddenly bolted out of the base when he received Prowl’s message. It was that single sentence with no context much to Ratchet’s annoyance. 

He had no clue if Prowl was safe and just needed to get a branch out of his gears, or if something had attacked then and he was bleeding out on the ground somewhere. Some context would have been much appreciated. But he didn’t have that kind of luxury at this point.

He had told Bumblebee and Bulkhead to keep following Optimus as he made a sharp turn. His wheel screeched against the asphalt and smoke rose into the air. He felt his whole vehicle frame almost topple to the ground in an undignified role because the turn was so sharp.

He raced off in the other direction, his sirens blaring and his light flashing causing the car's reflective surfaces to dance blue and red. Most of the cars moved out of the way begrudgingly, sometimes he had to weave through them. 

Unfortunately, it was rush hour. Fan-fragging-tastic. It didn’t matter how loud he had his sirens screaming there as always some slag-heap of a human who cast him a dirty look. 

One even had the nerve to roll down their window and say a few words to him. He didn’t hear them because by the time the first few syllables left their mouth he was already far away from them.

He watched the large buildings and winding roads tuning into smaller square houses closely stacked together. There were children playing in their yards. Some kid’s ball bounced in his way and if he hadn’t seen them at the last second he could have flattened them into a road pancake. 

Soon he was grounded by more green than people. Trees began to materialize, at first, they were sparse, in little clusters, but soon Ratchet found himself surrounded by a mini-forest.

He skidded to a stop when he checked Prowl’s location. The device said that he was right in front of him, there as just two miles of forest in his way. 

He pulled off the road, his sirens ceased and his lights flickered out. He transformed and looked into the woods. There was a large gash in the forest where trees had been toppled, where their trunks had been severed were reduced to splinters. 

Ratchet sighed. The rain splattered coldly against his frame, fog rose from the forest floor clouding around his pedes.

He stepped forward and into the gash in the earth. The mud squished into his pedes, making him grumble. It was going to be a glitch to get every molecule of dirt out from the bottom of his pedes.

The mud ran up his legs as he trudged forward. He realized halfway through struggling to walk through the mud, that he could walk on the side. Feeling foolish he climbed up the rut in the dirt, using a tree for leverage. 

Just then there was a loud rumble that sent tremors through the ground. He looked, squinting his optics through the sheets of rain. There looked two be three massive figures racing through the rut in the ground. Their bodies pushing against each other. 

He couldn’t make out what they were, just that they were getting closer. He stepped back, away from the approaching chaos. 

A chorus of screamed flew past him as the small pack of creatures passed him, shortly followed by two bots, whom he had never seen before. 

The first was a bright lime green bot wielding a crossbow, firing shots at the creatures faster than he thought was possible. And the second was an orange and purple bot wielding a blaster firing at the creatures with as much or if not more vigor than their partner. 

The creatures galloped past him darting out of the forest across the road and disappearing once again, the tree parted for their massive bodies. The two bots ran after them firing all the while, yelling curses, or what he assumed to be curses, based on the tone at the mecha. 

After witnessing suck bizarre events, all he could do was shrug and continue making his way to Prowl. 

+++

Prowl and Sari hs dozed off to the sound of rain gently hitting against the vessel’s metallic roof. Prowl was the first to wake, his visor slowly glowing to life. He shifted for a moment before realizing Sari had fallen asleep holding onto his servo. 

The sound of pede tromping over vegetation, kicking by dead leaves that had fallen down, and causing dead branches to crack was what alerted him to Ratchet’s presents when he arrived. 

Ratchet looked less than amused. He drenched from helm to toe-pede in water. It ran off of him in streams. 

Prowl smiled knowing it would only irritate the medic more he tried to keep it as subtle as possible. 

“Well, I traveled this far, what the damage?” Ratchet asked gruffly stepping towards Prowl readying his scanners. Prowl straightened his frame allowing the beam to travel down his body. 

He saw Ratchet’s optics ridges furrow in confusion when the scanner beeped and an image popped up. 

“What could you have possibly done to bring harm to your spark chamber?” Ratchet murmured. It was hard to tell if Ratchet was asking Prowl, or if his question was geared more towards himself. “What were you doing out here?” Ratchet asked. 

“There was this creature,“ Sari began. Prowl turned his helm towards her. He hadn’t realized she had woken up. “It attacked Prowl.” Sari said her voice dying off, she seemed at a loss for words. 

She paused for a moment, her eyes darting back and forth. “It was just sitting over you, with its mouth open. What was it doing?” Sari asked. 

Prowl flinched feeling the ghostly tug on her spark once again. He raised his servo and pressed his clenched fist to his chest. 

“I felt a tug on my spark.” Prowl said. “Like it was going to leave me at any moment.” He said softly. 

+++

Ratchet stood perplexed. He had never heard of this before. He had seen so many horrendous things during the war. Tortured victims so broken they were almost unrecognizable as their formers selves both physically and mentally. Bots in literal pieces. Bot so sick and overheated their insides were almost melting. Botched ‘home’ surgeries. 

But he had never heard of a case like this before.

There was a sudden snapping of twigs. Ratchet’s helm swiveled towards the direction it came from. A bot was slowly stepping out from behind the vessel carefully. But not carefully enough. They stopped when they realized they were spotted and instead of running they just starred. Petrified. 

“We have company.” Ratchet said. 


	6. Confrontation

“I forgot how fragging fast these things are!” Greenlight yelled to her partner over the wind on her aduails. She fired a shot at the spark-eater who easily dodged it. It’s long arms propelling it forward like some demonic cryo-money. Greenlight fired again this time landing a shot between the creature’s shoulder blades but it barely seemed to deter. The creature shrieked in pain and agony before speeding up much to Greenlight’s disdain. 

“Don’t you remember? Aim for the head!” Lancer yelled. She fired a round of shots at the creature, one bounced barley graved the side of the creature’s helm, or what was left of a helm, it was riddled with cracks and holes, and specks of rust were beginning to form on it of being unkempt and undermanaged and uncleaned in Primus knows how long. Spark-eaters were so disgusting. It was important to take care of yourself or you might end up looking just as bad as a spark eater.

The creature let out another shriek of agony. “That didn’t seem to do very much!” Greenlight quipped back at her Conjunx who flashed her an angry glare before returning to the task at hands. 

“Shut up.” Lancer grumbled and fired another round of shot that grazed the creature’s rusted exterior. The creature let out a roar of anger and craned its neck around to look at them. It’s pit-like eyes bore into Greenlight’s before it turned back around and sped up once again. Greenlight let out a groan, from exhaustion. 

Greenlight’s vents screamed. She hadn’t run like this in so long. She was kind of out of shape. Or definitely out of shape. She felt herself beginning to slow down before she forced herself to keep going.

As they were running Greenlight wore she saw a gleam of armor out of the corner of her optic. She turned to glance at what she had seen and low and behold there was, in fact, an organism bearing armor on its body. It was white and red. The organism was so small, they were at least half her size maybe even smaller than that. 

Greenlight shoot her helm, as if she was trying to shake the image of the bot out of it, and continued to tear through the strange organic stem-like things that seemed to jut out of the ground every few feet. It was kind of bizarre to look at and it made her feet kind of uncomfortable, she felt like she was surrounded by giant organic creatures. And organic creatures tended to not like their kind. But these kinds of organic organisms didn’t even seem to move. They just stood there, they didn’t even get out of the way when their ship crashed into them.

The spark-eater broke free from the collection of organic organisms and onto a strange asphalt pad that seemed to stretch to infinity in each direction. It had a line painted down the middle. The spark-eaters pedes stamped holes into it, it must have not been that sturdy. The spark-eater disappeared down the sloping terrain next to the asphalt slab. 

Lancer ran across it without a second thought. A strange object came hurtling towards them on the road. Greenlight heard the screech of wheels and the distinct smell of wheels burning as they desperately tried to stop. And it made Greenlight think, why didn’t this mechanical being just transform. It was much easier to grab a hold of something when servos were out and in use. 

The car slammed right into Lancer’s leg and then stopped. Lancer was fine, she didn’t even have a dent on her body. But this tiny metal creature’s front was almost completely smooshed. Lancer kept going and didn’t even spare the metal creature a second glancer and kept going, but Greenlight waited and the most peculiar thing happened. 

The door of the strange car opened and out stepped the strangest creature she had ever laid her optical units on. It was tiny, it was harry, and it jigged like energon jello. It was absolutely revolting to look at it. And this creature, this hideous fleshy creature, had the audacity be afraid of  _ her _ . It should have taken a look in the mirror before deciding that  _ she _ was terrifying. The strange fleshy creature turned around and ran into the cluster of motionless organics. Well, at least it was gone. 

“Damn it!” Greenlight heard Lancer yell from over the side of the road. Moments later Lancer ran back up to Greenlight, her blaster smoking. “I lost the damned thing.” She said, her optics dark with hatred. “We’re gonna have to report to Ariel that we lost it, she’s not gonna be happy.” Lancer said storing her blaster away in her substance.

“It’ll be okay.” Greenlight said trying to sound convincing, but she could tell by her own tone of voice that she didn’t even believe herself.

+++

Ratchet stared at the Pink bot. Their optics were fixed onto him also, wide and frightened before narrowing into slits. They shifted so that they looked like they were ready to stand their ground. A low noise rose from their throat, almost light a growl but not quite. 

Ratchet had never seen a bot like this before. But he had heard about them. Colonies set up by the thirteen primes. The first thirteen of the Autobot army, technically the ‘thirteen prime’ was almost made up of original Magnus known as Prima but no one seemed to care. 

He had originally thought the thirteen were things of legends, a myth. But right now standing before him was a Carcerian. They were from the colony of Maximo Prime, or what he liked to call himself Liege Maximo.

He didn’t want to sound like a textbook, but Carcerian were known for their society being completely made up of their own “brand” of war frame. All were thick and bulky, but they were surprisingly fast and mobile. But they were not  _ nearly _ as big as Decepticon war frame. 

Ratchet sighed looking at the defensive bot that stood before him. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you.” He said holding his servos at shoulder level in mock surrender. “I just came here to look at my teammate.” He said. His voice was slow. He wasn’t sure if this bot could even understand him.

The bot suddenly relaxed, their face morphing into what Ratchet swore was understanding. “Go ahead.” They said stepping away from the pod. Their voice was low, it traveled through the air and vibrated in ratchet’s chest and yet it still sounded feminine. Now? He wasn’t quite sure. He was slightly startled by the bot's understanding of him and by their voice. 

Suddenly those same trembling vibrations rattled through the ground as the two bots came back. They chirped and trilled at the pink bot who’s face suddenly changed to irritation. The pink bot facepalmed and the green bot seemed to shuffle their feet in the dirt with an embarrassed look on their face. 

From another direction. Behind Ratchet, there was another thunderous rumble of steps before Grimlock emerged from the trees looking rather irate. His razor was bright with color. It was strange to see him in his bot mode, most of the time he and the other Dinobots liked to spend their time in their dino-modes. 

And Optimus came in behind them, his face was a mixture of horror and irritation as he tried to hold the Dinobot back from lunging at the cluster of strange bots that stood in front of them. Along with Bulkhead and Bumblebee who seemed to have stepped back and let Optimus do all the work looking rather amazed that Optisu was able to at least struggle to hold the Dinobot asked. 

“Could I have some help here? I’m. Doing.  _ EVERYTHING _ !” Optimus shouted at his teammates who startled and rushed to help him. But once Optimus was distracted Grimlock used the opportunity to fight out of his grip and charge at the cluster of bots. He shoved Optimus to the ground as he made his way over there. Whether it was intentional or not Ratchet would never know and the question was quickly pushed out of his mind as the dim-witted grey bot charged the Carcerians. “Grimlock, no!” Optimus shouted, lifting himself off the ground and reaching towards the T-rex.

“What have you done with Spider lady?” Grimlock shouted lunging at the Carcerians, particularly the pink one. He managed to knock her to the ground, but he was quickly pulled off of her and held down by the pink femme’s two subordinates. 

“I’ve done nothing with her, you joke of a reptile.” She snarled. Before Grimlock could respond he was dropped and the three bots were done slipping away into the first leaving everyone else to stand around rather awkwardly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long break between chapters, I had no clue what to write so I stepped away for a while.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been living under a rock and only just found out about Transformers Animated in late 2018; in my defense, I would have been about two or three when it aired and I didn’t have Cartoon Network. So I’ve been catching up on it.


End file.
